Fitch Ratings has affirmed 52 money market funds (MMFs), following a
regularly scheduled review of the sector. The MMFs affirmed include 48
U.S.-based MMFs, regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC) under rule 2a-7 (Rule 2a-7), as well as four Europe- or Cayman
Islands-based MMFs that invest in USD-denominated securities.
Collectively, the 52 MMFs had approximately $626.7 billion of assets
under management as of June 2014. A complete list of the 52 affirmed
MMFs can be found at the bottom of this release, or by following the
link above. Monthly surveillance information on each MMF is available at
the following link: https://www.fitchratings.com/web_content/pages/fam/mmf/fund-surveillance.htm

KEY RATING DRIVERS

The main drivers for the affirmations are:

--The MMF portfolios' overall credit quality and diversification;

--Low exposure to interest rate and spread risks;

--Holdings of daily and weekly liquid assets consistent with shareholder
profiles and concentrations;

--Maturity profiles meeting Fitch's rating criteria;

--The capabilities and resources of the respective investment advisors.

PORTFOLIO CREDIT QUALITY/DIVERSIFICATION

Consistent with Fitch's MMF rating criteria, the reviewed funds seek to
maintain high credit quality portfolios by investing exclusively in
short-term securities rated at least 'F1' by Fitch or equivalent. MMFs
rated 'AAmmf' and 'Ammf' may elect to invest a small percent of their
assets in securities rated 'F2' by Fitch or equivalent.

Generally, these MMFs limit their exposures to individual issuers at 10%
of the fund's assets, with no more than 5% for those above seven days in
tenor. Minor and temporary deviations from this parameter may be
incurred mainly due to seasonal cash outflows. The funds also limit
their individual repurchase agreement (repo) exposures to individual
counterparties to 25% of total fund's assets, provided the
counterparties are rated 'A' or higher and that such repos are fully
collateralized by high credit quality and liquid government securities.

The reviewed prime MMFs' Portfolio Credit Factor (PCF), which is a
risk-weighted measure that considers the credit quality and maturity
profile of the portfolio securities, generally met Fitch's 'AAAmmf'
rating criterion of 1.50 or less. A number of funds are currently in
breach of this criteria metric or have temporarily breached this
parameter in the past. Breaches of the PCF metric are typically driven
by longer-dated bank exposures.

Temporary deviations from Fitch's rating criteria will not necessarily
trigger a rating action on the affected MMF, provided any deviations do
not represent a risk to fund investors and a credible and achievable
remediation plan is in place. Although PCF levels for the SSgA and
Federated prime funds have come down in recent weeks, sustained and
material adverse deviations may lead the ratings of affected MMFs to be
placed on Rating Watch Negative or downgraded.

As MMFs hold sizable exposures to the banking sector, Fitch will monitor
how MMF managers proactively manage and find suitable high quality
replacements to those banks likely to be downgraded as a result of
changing assumptions of sovereign support for banks. These are likely to
lead to downward revisions of Support Rating Floors (SRF) for banks in
the U.S., Europe and a handful of other countries within the next one to
two years. Where bank's Long-Term Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) are
driven by their SRF, this is likely to result in downgrades of these
IDRs, as indicated by the revision of Outlooks to Negative on March 26,
2014. As a result and absent mitigating fundamental improvements, some
banks held by MMFs may see their Short-Term rating falling below the
'F1' level.

MATURITY PROFILES

The reviewed MMFs seek to limit interest rate and spread risk by
maintaining their weighted average maturity (WAM) and weighted average
life (WAL) below 60 days and 120 days, respectively. These funds also
limit the maturity date of any single investment to 397 days with
exception of floating rate securities issued by the U.S. government or
government agencies, which could have maturities as long as 730 days.
Portfolios and/or individual securities maturity limits may be lower, in
line with the funds' or asset managers' investment policy and depending
on issuers' creditworthiness.

LIQUIDITY PROFILES

The funds seek to maintain sufficient levels of daily and weekly
liquidity to meet investors' redemption requests. Specifically, taxable
MMFs rated 'AAAmmf' invest at least 10% of total assets in securities
offering daily liquidity and at least 25% of total assets in securities
providing weekly liquidity in line with Fitch's rating criteria.
Tax-exempt MMFs invest at least 25% of their assets in securities
offering weekly liquidity, consistent with Fitch's MMF rating criteria.
The funds fully met the respective liquidity targets as of the review
date. In limited circumstances, some funds have temporarily deviated
from Fitch's liquidity guidelines due to outflows. Fitch expects
liquidity levels to be restored in a timely manner.

FUNDS' OBJECTIVES

These MMFs seek to maximize current income to the extent consistent with
the preservation of capital and maintenance of liquidity.

INVESTMENT ADVISORS

Fitch views the investment advisory capabilities, resource commitment,
operational controls, corporate governance, and compliance procedures of
the respective fund's investment advisors as consistent with the ratings
assigned to the funds.

MONEY FUND REFORM

Fitch's ratings review reflects the current regulatory structure of U.S.
MMFs. On July 24 the SEC voted to adopt rule changes to money fund
regulations under Rule 2a-7. Under the new rules some money funds would
be required to float their net asset values (NAV) and some would have
the ability to impose liquidity fees and/or redemption gates at a time
of stress. The SEC has provided the industry two years to implement
these structural changes.

Given the long implementation period for the reforms, Fitch's
affirmation of rated money funds takes into account the current
structure and operations of money funds. So far there have not been
material outflows from money funds following adoption of the reforms,
but Fitch continues to monitor shareholder flows, as well as funds'
liquidity and portfolios. The funds' ratings may be sensitive to
material changes in the credit quality, market risk, and/or liquidity
profiles of the funds, or drastic changes in shareholder asset flows.

RATING SENSITIVITIES AND SURVEILLANCE

The ratings may be sensitive to material changes in the credit quality,
market risk, and/or liquidity profiles of the funds. Temporary
deviations from Fitch's criteria need not automatically result in rating
changes, provided the fund manager is able to address them with credible
near-term remedial actions. However, material adverse and continued
deviations from Fitch's guidelines for any key rating driver may lead to
the rating being placed on Rating Watch Negative or downgraded.

SURVEILLANCE

Fitch receives weekly fund holdings information and other pertinent fund
data from the funds' administrators and managers to conduct surveillance
against ratings guidelines and maintain its money market fund ratings.

Additional information is available at www.fitchratings.com.
The sources of information used to assess this rating were the public
domain and the respective fund's investment advisor and/or administrator.

ALL FITCH CREDIT RATINGS ARE SUBJECT TO CERTAIN LIMITATIONS AND
DISCLAIMERS. PLEASE READ THESE LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS BY FOLLOWING
THIS LINK: HTTP://FITCHRATINGS.COM/UNDERSTANDINGCREDITRATINGS.
IN ADDITION, RATING DEFINITIONS AND THE TERMS OF USE OF SUCH RATINGS ARE
AVAILABLE ON THE AGENCY'S PUBLIC WEBSITE 'WWW.FITCHRATINGS.COM'.
PUBLISHED RATINGS, CRITERIA AND METHODOLOGIES ARE AVAILABLE FROM THIS
SITE AT ALL TIMES. FITCH'S CODE OF CONDUCT, CONFIDENTIALITY, CONFLICTS
OF INTEREST, AFFILIATE FIREWALL, COMPLIANCE AND OTHER RELEVANT POLICIES
AND PROCEDURES ARE ALSO AVAILABLE FROM THE 'CODE OF CONDUCT' SECTION OF
THIS SITE. FITCH MAY HAVE PROVIDED ANOTHER PERMISSIBLE SERVICE TO THE
RATED ENTITY OR ITS RELATED THIRD PARTIES. DETAILS OF THIS SERVICE FOR
RATINGS FOR WHICH THE LEAD ANALYST IS BASED IN AN EU-REGISTERED ENTITY
CAN BE FOUND ON THE ENTITY SUMMARY PAGE FOR THIS ISSUER ON THE FITCH
WEBSITE.